THE EARLS ERIK AND SWEYN HAAKONSSON (1000-1015). THE DISCOVERY OF
VINLAND.
After King Olaf's death at Svolder, the allied princes divided his
kingdom between them. To Earl Erik were given all the shires along the
western coast from Finmark to Lindesness,[A] with the exception of
seven, which were allotted to King Olaf the Swede. All the shires from
Lindesness, including Agder, to the Swedish boundary, with the exception
of Ranrike, came into the possession of Sweyn Forkbeard. Ranrike (which
is now a part of Sweden) was given to the Swedish king, who again gave
it, as well as his other possessions in Norway, in fief to his
brother-in-law, Earl Sweyn, the brother of Earl Erik, on condition of
his paying one half of the royal revenues to his feudal overlord, and
placing a specified number of troops at his disposal in case of war. On
similar conditions Earl Erik received the eastern shires, Raumarike and
Vingulmark, in fief from Sweyn Forkbeard.
[Footnote A: Lindesness is the southernmost point in Norway.]
Though a man of ability and many noble qualities, Earl Erik never
succeeded in asserting his sway over Norway as his father, Earl Haakon,
had done; and Earl Sweyn could boast even less authority than his
brother. In the Oplands semi-independent kings of the race of Harold the
Fairhaired were still living; and in Rogaland Olaf Tryggvesson's
brother-in-law, Erling Skjalgsson of Sole, refused to recognize the
supremacy of either the earls or the kings whom they represented. He
surrounded himself with a court which, in magnificence, equalled that of
the earls, if it did not surpass it. Ninety warriors constituted his
daily household, and when occasion demanded he kept 240 or more. Of
thralls he kept thirty for his daily attendance, besides a large number
who cultivated his lands. He was a good master, stimulating them to
thrift and economy. He demanded of each a certain fixed amount of labor,
and gave him a piece of land for cultivation. When the required task was
over the thrall's time was his own, and he was at liberty to apply it
for his own advantage. The products of his land he sold to his master at
the market rates, and was thus enabled to buy his freedom within one,
two, or three years. Over his freedmen Erling continued to exercise a
supervising care, employing them at wages or on shares in the fisheries,
in the reclaiming of land from the forests, or in other branches of
industry.
Clinging, as he did, tenaciously to the authority which Olaf Tryggvesson
had conferred upon him, Erling could not avoid coming into collision
with the authority of the earls. He exacted a land-tax from the peasants
of Rogaland, and, as Earl Erik did the same, the poor landowners had to
pay a double tax, unless they were prepared to offer resistance.
[Illustration: SHUTTLES OF IRON AND OF WHALEBONE; AND WEIGHTS FOR THE
LOOM.]
But both the earl and Erling were too powerful to make such a course
advisable. It is, indeed, strange that Erik, with his great connections
abroad, should have tolerated the defiance of this small potentate
without in some way trying to break his power. It is true, Erling had a
large number of mighty kinsmen and supporters in many of the
coast-shires; and he would have been able to make a strong resistance.
But it is scarcely credible that he could have maintained himself
against Earl Erik, if the latter had seriously resolved to punish him.
In fact, Earl Erik, although his early life had been passed in the
tumult of war, was essentially a conciliatory character. A mighty
warrior he was when duty or diplomatic necessity forced him to fight;
but he hesitated to draw his sword, except on extreme provocation. It
was his misfortune, by his birth and the circumstances which brought him
into power, to represent an age and a regime which were destined to pass
away. It was the so-called "heroic" age--that is, the age of turbulent
individualism, opposed to the modern conception of the state. It is
obvious that Erik had no sympathy with the feudalism instituted by the
conquests of Harold the Fairhaired; probably he did not comprehend the
progressive idea which dignified King Harold's ambition and made him the
conscious or unconscious agent of advancing civilization. It is proof
enough of this to state, that Erik allowed the dependencies of Norway,
the Orkneys, and the Shetland Isles to detach themselves from the
motherland, and made no attempt to force them back to their allegiance.
There was no inspiring tradition in his family, as in that of Harold
the Fairhaired, demanding a great and united kingdom; but, on the
contrary, a local separatistic tradition, identifying him with the
greatness and fame of a special locality. To have carried out this
tradition completely, the Earls Erik and Sweyn ought to have remained
pagans as their father was before them. They seem, indeed, to have been
conscious of a certain inconsistency in accepting Christianity, for they
made not the faintest attempt to assert their faith in their relation to
the people, or to check the relapse into paganism, which became very
prevalent during their reign.
Quite in keeping with the general reactionary character of the earls'
government, was the revival of the viking cruises which, during the
reign of Olaf Tryggvesson, had been diminishing in frequency. Earl Erik
himself had been a valiant viking in his youth, and probably could see
no harm in the careless and predatory life in which the old Germanic
paganism found its most characteristic expression. A great impetus must
have been given to this mode of life by Sweyn Forkbeard's repeated
expeditions to England, in which a large number of Norsemen
participated. It makes little difference if the aggressors were
nominally Christians; their actions were an outburst of the old, tribal
pagan spirit, which respected no right but that of might.
It was natural that the earls, if they expected to make their dominion
permanent, should endeavor to extend their connections beyond Troendelag.
The strength of a government in those days depended largely upon the
support which it received among the chieftains or tribal aristocracy,
whose sentiments were usually reflected by the peasants. It was
therefore necessary in some way to conciliate the late adherents of Olaf
Tryggvesson, whose influence upon public opinion could be utilized to
advantage. It may have been some such consideration which restrained
Earl Erik from attacking Erling Skjalgsson. It is obvious that the
overtures which he made to Einar Thambarskelver had the same end in
view. We have seen how the young archer came within an inch of ending
the earl's days at Svolder, thereby exciting the admiration of Erik for
his skill and bravery. After the battle, the earl, with his usual
generosity, spared his life, and sought in many ways to secure his
friendship. He married him to his sister, the high-minded Bergljot, and
gave him large fiefs, so that no chieftain in Troendelag could rival him
in power.
Toward his brother, Sweyn, Earl Erik behaved with the same magnanimity
that he showed toward all who had claims on him. Sweyn was dissatisfied
because of the disparity in their positions; he ruling over one third of
the country as the vassal of the Swedish king, while Erik held two
thirds as an independent sovereign. These complaints were repeated with
growing importunity, until Erik resolved to abandon the government. He
called together the chieftains and the mightiest peasants of the
country, and abdicated (1015) in favor of his son Haakon and his brother
Sweyn, between whom he divided his share of the land in equal portions.
As Haakon was not yet of full age, Einar Thambarskelver was appointed
his guardian. In the autumn of the year 1015, Earl Erik set sail for
England, and assisted Knut the Mighty in the subjugation of that
country. He was joined later by his son Haakon, who was expelled from
Norway by Olaf Haroldsson, and was compelled to swear that he would
never renew his claims to the kingdom. Earl Erik died in England, from
the effect of a surgical operation, in 1023 or 1024. Before their
expulsion, the Earls Sweyn and Haakon made peace with Erling Skjalgsson,
confirming him in the possession of the fiefs which he had received from
Olaf Tryggvesson, embracing all the coast-shires from the Sogne-fiord to
Lindesness. To cement their friendship, Earl Sweyn gave his daughter,
Sigrid,[A] in marriage to Erling's son, Aslak.
[Footnote A: Her name is differently given as Sigrid and Gunhild.]
It was during the reign of the earls that the North American continent
was first visited by the Norsemen. An Icelander named Bjarne
Herjulfsson, during a voyage to Greenland (986), was blown out of his
course, and discovered, while sailing northward, an unknown land on his
left. He concluded that it could not be Greenland, as there were no
glaciers, but only low, wooded heights sloping gently toward the ocean.
On his arrival in Greenland, Bjarne told of the new country he had seen,
but was much ridiculed because he had not gone ashore and explored it.
His story made a great impression, however, upon the adventurous Leif,
son of Erik the Red. He bought Bjarne's ship, and, with a crew of
thirty-five men, set sail for the unknown shore in the West (1000). The
first land he saw was on his right as he sailed southward. It was full
of glaciers and had no grass. He called it Helluland, because it seemed,
at the foot of the glaciers, to be one flat expanse.[A] This must have
been the present Labrador. Continuing his southward course, Leif came to
a country which was well wooded, and had long, smooth beaches. He called
it Markland (Woodland), and the supposition is that it was Nova Scotia.
With a stiff northeaster, he made considerable headway, and came, after
another day's voyage, to an island where a river flowed into the sea. As
it was ebb-tide he could not land, but so eager were the men to explore
the country, that they jumped overboard and waded ashore. The statement
that the sun rose in this region, on the shortest day of the year, at
half-past seven and set at half-past four, indicates a latitude of 41 deg.
24' 10"; Leif, accordingly, must have landed somewhere in the
neighborhood of Cape Cod or Fall River, Mass. He found the country
possessed of many advantages. It was so mild in the winter that cattle
would require no stable-feeding. The rivers abounded in salmon and the
woods in game. A German, named Tyrker, became so enthusiastic over the
discovery of grapes, that he relapsed into his native tongue, and was
supposed, by the crew to be intoxicated. Leif and his men put up some
booths and spent the winter in the new land, which they called Vinland,
but set sail the following spring for Greenland.
[Footnote A: _Helle_, in Norwegian, means a great flat stone.]
It is evident from the description here given that there is either some
mistake in regard to the latitude, or the climate of New England must
have grown severer during the last nine centuries. Cattle could scarcely
be left in the open air in the Cape Cod region nowadays. Nor do grapes
of any choice variety grow wild in the chill blasts which now gambol
about the Massachusetts coast; and the tart fox grape, it seems, could
scarcely rouse enthusiasm even in the breast of a German.
A second expedition to Vinland was undertaken in 1006 by the Icelander
Thorfinn Karlsevne and his wife Gudrid. Among their followers, who
numbered 160, were Erik the Red's son Thorwald and his daughter Freydis.
This was the first expedition which was undertaken with a view to
colonizing the country. Cattle were therefore taken along, and
preparations made for a permanent settlement. Thorfinn found without
difficulty the booths abandoned by Leif, and himself added to their
number. A strange people, whom the Norsemen called _Skraellings_, came
to them in light boats made of skin and offered furs in exchange for
cloth, ornaments, and weapons. Karlsevne, however, refused to sell them
weapons; and when, during the negotiations, a bull came out of the woods
and began to roar, the Skraellings became frightened and hastened away.
From that time forth they became hostile to the settlers and attacked
them repeatedly, killing several of their number. This perpetual state
of insecurity disheartened the survivors, and after a sojourn of three
years in Vinland, they returned to Greenland.
[Illustration]